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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23453803">Cat Date II: The Adventure of Mark</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/almostkun/pseuds/almostkun'>almostkun</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Kotek [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cats, Falling In Love, Fluff, M/M, Pining, a little bit of thirsting, hyuck is the best</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 14:42:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,298</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23453803</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/almostkun/pseuds/almostkun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>His breath hitched. His heart stopped. Just a single skip of a beat before beating like the drizzle of the Summer rain on his window. He laughed in nervousness, bringing back memories of his first crush in high school and his unshifted demeanor.
</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lee Jeno/Mark Lee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Kotek [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1523684</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Cat Date II: The Adventure of Mark</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>ღ</b>
</p><p>
  <span>Jeno played with the hem of his shirt for the thousandth time after they reached the bus station.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you sure your friend won't mind?” He asked, turning to Mark.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were of similar height and, if not for Mark's tendency to avoid eye contact, he was sure the question was mirrored by Jeno's black eyes. But no, Mark was slippery and shy. His focus was on Jeno's mouth and the ghost of the words that just left there to his ears.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Donghyuck is cool! He'll adore you. I'm sure he will.” Mark looked up and gave a small smile to his preoccupied friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jeno seemed to easen up a bit; a softer expression on his face and a deep breath got some color on his unusual pale face and, for once since his mother dropped him at the bus stop, he smiled the gorgeous smile that had Mark's heart skipping like kids in a puddle on a hot Summer day.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was involuntary, really, the way Mark returned the action—a sign of adoration to the boy in front of him more than anything—but he set his guard on high since the time he was the one meeting Jeno's friends and the way one of them, Jaemin, seemed to be much more aware of Mark's growing infatuation than Jeno ever seemed to be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Our bus is here. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Let's get it!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mark almost cooed at the English phrase as they stood up. It was so often repeated by anyone that spent more than two hours with him, but no one gave him the same giddy feeling as when Jeno's voice carried the words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They embarked the bus with talks of new unheard stories and missed things; cat matters and the urgency to give Seol a trim with Summer peeking just around the corner. "She's always heavy-breathing when we don't trim her fur, and the vet says it's for the best." The small kitten on the screen looked unrecognizable without all the fur and age. “Nal does just fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a fifteen minutes long journey to the cat café where Donghyuck waited for them and not for one minute did they stay in silence. Jeno's summer body plan was on full power and Mark had to suffer going through Jeno's gallery, where all his progress was zoomed in and pointed out. Biceps and triceps, calves and trapezius.  And if Mark was doing a good job ignoring the boy's bare arms on the black sleeveless he wore for today, he had their evolution shown to him on-screen and off-screen. Thoroughly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The conversation, for Mark's fortune, delved in shallower waters abruptly when Jeno asked about his compositions. He whispered-sang a little bit of an old ballad, rapped to one of his latest lyrics and made promises that involved picnics, park dates in the middle of autumn and their cats playing around while Mark played the guitar for Jeno.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mark had to suppress a wishful sigh until the end of the bus ride and all the way to the café, only releasing it at the sight of Jeno sitting on the wooden floor, two cats on his lap leaving his black jeans with some strands of shedded fur and crescent moons for eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Donghyuck, as predicted, adored Jeno. A little shy at the beginning but soon blooming. With Mark's help, of course. His old friend made sure to share the most awkward and embarrassing stories, childhood to present, getting Mark as red as a traffic light post—Jeno's joyful laughter was the only thing keeping him alive through this moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When time to leave came, Jeno hugged him good-bye. Warm and cozy as the sun in early morning, quick like trivial happiness. Happy, still.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The inquiry thereafter was arduous but he managed to come out alive. Donghyuck was sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued and sharp overall; all vain hopes for his best friend not to notice that he was just a little too much into Jeno in non-platonic ways was destroyed with the first phrase. As they watched Jeno's frame grow smaller and smaller as he walked into twilight-bathed streets to meet other friends, Donghyuck shattered his glass walls with one single slingshot, the way only a life-long friend can do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You two look cute together.” He said, nonchalantly as if talking about the weather to a stranger and not about the not-so-secret secret Mark concealed, or failed to. “He might not know, but you shouldn't— there's no need to like him with all this intensity.” He paused. “I don't know... I can't tell you how to like someone but if you do it like this... unless you want him to notice it in a week or two, tone it down a bit.” He finally looked at Mark; a hand across his shoulders. “But you do look cute together. Like red and blue. </span>
  <em>
    <span>You know antithesis</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” He finished in English.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We're not that different...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>I know, I know. I'm joking. You know joke?</span>
  </em>
  <span> You two just looked very different today: one in all-black from head to toe, the other in a flower-themed button-up shirt and jorts.” Donghyuck let out a tired sight and turned Mark to face him. He was right, of course. His shirt emblazoned with many flowers of all kinds was what he wore when he was meeting Donghyuck and Donghyuck only. Not Jeno. Mark facepalmed, nevertheless. “I remember telling you to throw these things away. You go like that to a date? Oh, my mom is here! </span>
  <em>
    <span>Bye, Marcus!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alone, Mark bus-rode his way home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instant noodles and a can of soda later, he laid down on the cold porcelain floor of his room; Dong kept his left ribs warm, his guitar weighed on his bare tummy and also his mind. A page full of words, scribbled and illegible, circled his mind as he muttered them mindlessly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jeno was also on his brain; ideas of him, of them. Together. Scenarios only minds poisoned by romantic feelings for another could come up with. He lived through each of them with a smile on his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A shower later, Mark gave in and checked his Instagram while doing his research. A special Instagram story caught his attention, making him ignore his sheets (that were quickly turned into a bed by Dong) and focus on his screen with ferocious intent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jaemin caught Jeno in his white pajamas and prescription glasses, bare face and soft hair, smooching Nal's fluffy belly, and though a common sight—Mark had seen it happen with his own two eyes many times—the ending was a sight to sore eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jeno slowly approached the camera and smooched the phone's lenses, and there the Instagram story cut Jeno's incoming laugh abruptly. Mark's heart was fast-beating and his breathing, erratic. He chuckled to himself, rubbing Dong's back with one hand while the other busied itself sending the story to Jeno with a small message: “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Cute!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Short and evasive; the perfect balance for a coward boy at the brink of bursting with feelings. His demise didn't wait too long to come, however.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nal, or me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His breath hitched. His heart stopped. Just a single skip of a beat before beating like the drizzle of the Summer rain on his window. He laughed in nervousness, bringing back memories of his first crush in high school and his unshifted demeanor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His cheeks were still warm long after he replied with a single word. When he had long forgotten his research and moved back to guitar, pen and paper, the response was still driving him nuts and bringing a dumb smile to his face at the late hours of the night before his heart settled enough for him to drift to sleep without checking his phone for Jeno's reaction to it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You.”</span>
</p><p>
  <b>ღ</b>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>it took me long enough to write a sequel to cat date i and it was done much like the first one, rushed and in one go, so i am sorry for any glaring typos and outrageous depictions of emotions ig take care, wash ur hands lol
</p></blockquote></div></div>
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